Angie's post a while back about The Visual Advantages of Shorter Tops resonated with me. She said "Grazing the hipbone or sitting just below the waist, untucked tops work well with skirts, pants, and jeans with volume and higher waists." Because I'm high-waisted, I find a lot of tops are not quite at that magic length on me. Usually I make them work by semi-tucking or tucking them in, and sometimes also tucking and blousing them over the waistband.
I ordered this AllSaints shirt a while back, and kept it because I loved the print. I thought it would be a great low-key festive piece to have on hand for holiday get-togethers. Then I didn't wear it; I would always pass over it in favor of something else.
Sometimes it takes me a while to realize the length is the problem. Angie's post made me wonder if I'd like this shirt better at a shorter length. I tried it on, decided on a new length, and pinned it. As I've mentioned before, I dislike doing alterations, so of course I procrastinated. Fast forward to now, several months later, and well past the holidays, and I finally hemmed it.
This fabric is not easy to work with, and despite my painstaking efforts to mark it evenly all around, serge off the bottom right along my marked line, and turn it up twice to make a meticulous rolled him with my edge-stitching foot on the sewing machine, I was not happy with the results. it looked uneven in the front. And then, come to think of it, the back looked uneven also. And maybe I had taken off too much! Aack. I thought it was destined for donation.
But I had nothing to lose, so I tried to fix it. I ripped out part of the hem in back and in front, re-serged, re-sewed, tried it on my dress form, and it looked even. Then I tried it on myself again, and eureka! I had a shirt I might actually wear. And you know what? The sides of the shirt-tail are right at that sweet spot Angie described--just at the hipbone. I can wear the shirt untucked, and it looks good over high-waisted pants with volume.
And that's what I wore today, out to lunch with a friend. Don't you like a tale with a happy ending?
Photos:
1: The shirt before hemming
2: After hemming, worn with black drapy denim lantern pants with off-white top-stitching (made by me); off-white open-stitch cardigan (AllSaints); black moto boots (Blondo). Not pictured: Olive utility jacket (Lauren Ralph Lauren); silver cross body bag (AllSaints).
